mccloud



E. H. McCLOUD.

AUTOMATIC FIRE SHUTTER.

APPLICATION HLED OCT. 21. m7.

1,325,524. Patented Dec. 23,1919. Q a SHEEVTSSHEET 2. N R

' I avwenw EdwardfLMTlvud Q 6 E. H. McCLOUD. AUTOMATIC FIRE SHUTTER.APPLICATION HLED OCT- 27, 19!].

Patented Dec. 23,1919.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3 amen 6oz fldwarcliiM loud @54 4? A4 Gum/W UNITED STATESOFFICE.

EDWARD H. MCCLOUD, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE KINNEAR MANUFAC-TUBING COMPANY, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO,

A conronn'rron or 01110.

AUTOMATIC FIRE-SHUTTER.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Dec, 23, 1919.

Applicationfiled October 27, 1917. Serial No. 198,770.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, EDWARD H. MoCLoUD, a citizen of the United States,residing at Columbus, in the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Automatic Fire-Shutters, of which the following. is a specification.

This invention relates generally to automatic fire shutters and moreparticularly to flexible rolling fire shutters and especially such ashave a tension member for counterbalancing the shutter and are manuallyoperative in normal circumstances and are thermally controlled forrelease to'permit automatic closing in the event of nearb fire.

Heretofore in automatic fire sh tters where a counterbalancing spring fothe shutter was partially released to permit the automatic closing ofthe shutter the release was practically instantaneous so that theremaining tension acted to interfere with.

the development of that early momentum which is important in carryingthe shutter promptly to closing position againstthe remaining tension ofthe spring. Further if the portion of tension thus released wassuflicient to permit early momentum the acceleration over the weakremaining tension was.

great enough to endanger the integrity of the shutter.

The principal object of the present invention therefore is to provide animproved construction whereby upon the release of the thermallycontrolled means no tension of the counterbalancing spring is exerted onthe. shutter to impede it in its initial closing movement from thenormal open position of the shutter. A further object is the provisionin connection with such means of means whereby the extent of suchunimpeded initial movement may be varied. Other objects can be gatheredfrom the details disclosed herein.

The invention is embodied in the example herein shown and described, thefeatures of novelty being pointed out in the appended claim I In theaccompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of the shutter rollerand a portion only of a shutter thereon,

Fig. 2 is a similar view of a modification.

Fig. 3 is an elevation of the right handnates the barrel or shutterwinding memher which receives the shutter or curtain 11 to wind thereon.The barrel contains inits left hand end a head or plug 12 with a shaftextension 12 supported on roller bearings 13 in the bracket 10. The heador plug 12 and its extension 12 are perforated axially to receivea'shaft 14. Said shaft 14' can be adJusted and fixed in adjustedrelation to the head 12 and its extension by .meansof a wheel 15 pinnedto the shaft and awheel l6 keyed to the extension 12", the latter hav-'ing a threaded hole to receive a pin 17 entering one of several radialsockets 15 in the rim of the wheel 15. The wheel 16 has around its axisin its face adjacent the bracket a volute groove 16 and said groovecarries a loose pin 18, one end of which proects -1nto a radial slot 19in a disk 20 adjustably secured on the outer face of the bracket. Theconstruction and function of said devices is such as to limit therotation of the shutter-receiving member and is substantially such asset forth the United States patentto McCloud and Brunst, No. 1,204,738,dated Nov. 14, 1916..

The right hand end of the barrel contains a head 40 through whichextendsa shaft 21, said shaft having a bearing in the end bracket 10. Keyedonthe' outer end of the shaft 21, beyond the bracket, is a dished wheel22 having ratchet teeth- 22 on its flange or rim and a ,number of radialholes and sockets 22 and 22, one pair of which is to receive a removablepin 23. The wheel 22 and the shaft 21 are normally latched from movementby means of a pawl 24 pivoted on a lever 25 fulcrumed at 26 on the outerface of the end bracket. The

pawl 24 is held in proper position to engage a tooth and permit aturning in one direction of the wheel 22 by means of a coil spring 27connecting its lower end and the lever 25 carrying the pawl. The lever25 is'actuatable to place or remove the pawl by means of a heavy lever28, there being a pin and slot connection between the two levers asclearly illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. The lever 28 is supported inposition to hold up the lever with its pawl in engagement with theratchet by means of a weight arm 29 held with a wire or chain 29containing a fusible link 30, as usual in this art, so that upon theoccurrence of fire in the vicinity of the shutter the several levers andpawls are released. The shaft 21 has pinned to its inner end a sleeve 31to which is connected a coil spring 32, the other end of said springbeing connected with a sleeve 33 secured to the barrel or drum butturning on the shaft 14. The end of the shaft 14 extends into theopening of the collar 31 on the shaft 21 and the two shafts alineaxially but are rotatable independently of each other. Pinned to shaft14 is a disklike collar 34 and loose on said shaft between said collar34 and the collar 31 are a number of disk-like collars 35 having lateralprojections or lugs adapted to engage one another and corresponding lugson the collars 31 and 34 so that the shaft 14 may be turned severaltimes before the train of lugs are contacting to prevent furtherrelative rotation of them. The number of disk-like collars 35 to beinterposed between the collars 31 and 34 will depend upon the extent towhich the shutter is to be manually unrolled. This last describedconstruction is set forth in Letters Patent of the United States datedApril 25, 1916, No. 1,204,802, to Edward H. McCloud. As shown in themodification Fig. 2 the shaft 21 has pinned to it a collar 36 betweenwhich, and a collar 37 secured to the barrel, isa coil spring 38. Thisspring 38 is supplementary or auxiliary to the spring 32, and can beomitted provided the coils of the spring 32 be made ample to meet therequirements.

The outer face of the bracket 10 is provided with a lug 39 against whichthe pin 2-3 abuts to limit the rotation of the barrel and spring whenthe pawl 24 is released as hereinafter explained.

After the ratchet wheel 22 and shafts 21 and 14 have been first set bylatching the wheel 22 the wheel 16 is turned until the pin 18 is at theouter terminus of the groove 16 with the shutter wound up. The shaft 14is then turned independently of the wheel 16 in the winding up directionuntil the train of lugs on the collar31, 34 and 35 are in contact merelyand the wheel 15 locked to the wheel 16 by the pin 17. After this thewheel 22 and the shaft 21' are turned until the spring 32 or the springs32 and 38 if the construction be such as shown in Fig. 2 are undersufiicient tension to balance the weight of the shutter and hold itwound up or hold it in the position to Which it may be drawn down. Afterthis the pin 23 is inserted in the hole and socket 22"22 to permit, uponthe release of the wheel 22, of such a rotation of the spring with thebarrel as will allow ample initial unrolling of the shutter by gravityalone to afford the proper momentum to overcome the remaining tension ofthe spring to carry it promptly to closing position without endangeringviolence. In any given construction the ratio of turns of the spring toshutter-winding turns of the drum is practically fixed. Upon the releaseof the shaft 21, in case of fire the shutter u'nrolls by gravityunrestrained by the spring and a difference in the ratio of spring turnsor tension to drum rotation is created to the extent determined by theare through which the pin be sufiicient (allowing for incidental friction of the parts) the shutter will proceed to close by gravity againstthe restraining effe'ct of the remaining tension of the spring. If theshutter be fully and normally wound up at the moment of the release ofthe shaft 21 the train of lugs on the collars 31, 34 and remain in.contact the spring rotating with the barrel until the lugs separate. Ifthe shutter be released from a partially drawn down state, said lugsbeing more or less separated, a portion of the tension of the spring orsprings is released substantially proportionally to the are throughwhich the pin 23 moves and the shutter likewise; proceeds to close bygravity because of this release. In either case the ratio of resistingtension to the unrolling portion of the shutter is substantially uniformor such as to prevent an undue acceleration of the speed of the closingshutter.

It will be noted that when the wheel 22 is latched by the pawl 24 asherein described 23 after which the barrel continues to rotate under theaction of the weight and momentum of the unrolling shutter, but becausethe lugs then begin to separate the spring begins to exert increasinglyits restraining effect upon the descending shutter.

' The forms of the parts shown and described can be varied withoutdeparting from the gist of the invention as claimed.

What I claim is:

..1. In-an automatic fire shutter, the combination of a shutter windingmember a tension member for normally counterbalancing the shutter and aholding means therefor movable with reference to the winding member,means independent of the shutter for limiting the winding action of thewinding member with reference to said holding means, thermallycontrolled means for'latch-- ing said holding means, and means forlimiting the movement'of said holding means upon the release of thelatching means to partially reduce thetension of the tension member.

2. In an automatic fire shutter, the combination of a shutter windingmember, a tension member for normally counterbalancing the shutter and aholding means therefor movable with reference to the winding mem-,

ber, means independent of the shutter for limiting the winding action ofthe winding member with reference to said holding means, means wherebysaid limiting means may be adjusted and fixed in adjusted position,thermally controlled means for latching said holding means, and meansfor limiting the movement of said holding means upon the release of thelatching means.

3. In an automatic fire shutter, the c01n-.

bination of a shutter winding member, a s ring counterbalancing membertherefor, t ermally controlled means for holding said spring membernormally in shutter counterbalancing condition, and means whereby saidspring is caused to rotate inert with respect to the shutter windingmember when the thermally controlled means is released, and meansindependent of the shutter for limiting the extent of such inertrotation of the spring.

4. In an automatic shutter, the combination of a shutter winding member,a shaft movable with reference thereto, a counterbalancing springconnecting said shaft and the shutter winding member, thermallycontrolled means for holding said shaft, means I for limiting themovement of said shaft, and means for limiting the winding movement ofthe shutter winding means.

5. In anautomatic shutter, the combination of a shutter winding member,a shaft movable with reference thereto, a counterbalancing springconnecting said shaft and the shutter winding member, thermallycontrolled means .for holding said shaft, means for releasing andlimiting the movement of said shaft to partially reduce the tensionofsecond shaft for adjusting the tension of the counterbalancing springindependently of the shutter winding member and means for fixing saidlast named shaft with respect.

to the shutter winding member.-

7. In an automatic shutter, the combination of a shutter winding member,a shaft movable. with reference thereto, a counterbalancing springconnecting said shaft and the shutter=winding member, thermallycontrolled means for holding said shaft, means for releasing andlimiting the movement of said shaft when released and thereby partiallyreducing the tension of said spring, a second shaft for adjusting thetension of the counterbalancing spring independently of the shutterwinding member, means for fixing said last named shaft with respect tothe shutter winding member and means for lime iting the winding movementof the first mentioned shaft with refernce to the second named shaft. I

I 8; In an automatic fire shutter, the combination of a shutter windingmember, a tension member for normally counterbalancing the shutter,means for holding said counterbalanci'ng means in a state of tens on,said holding means movable withv reference to.

the winding member, means for limiting the movement of said holdingmeans to cause a partial reduction of the tension of the tension member,and thermally controlled means for latching said limiting means.

9. In-an automatic fire shutter, the combination of a shutter windingmember, a tension member for normally counterbalancing the shutter,means for holding said counterbalancing means in a state of tension,said holding means movable with reference to the winding, member, meansfor limiting the movement of said holding means to cause a partialreduction'of the tension of the tension member, thermally controlledmeans for latching said llmlting means, and means to cause thecounterbalancing member and winding member to rotate together during theinitial unwinding movement of the winding member.

EDWARD H. McCLOUD.

